October 18, 2006 [LINK / comment]

Rush is down on Instapundit

Rush Limbaugh is mad as heck at those gloom-and-doomers who think the Democrats are going to win next month. What has him most irked is the "GOP Pre-Mortem" blog post I mentioned on Monday. For a guy who is supposedly at the "cutting edge of societal evolution," Rush's professed lack of awareness of who does the Instapundit blog was certainly strange. In his own defense, Glenn Reynolds (the blogger's name, for those of you in Rio Linda or the "EIB Southern Command") cited James Taranto: "[T]here is something to be said for punishing the party in power if its performance has been subpar."

Personally, I am exhausted from years of haranguing by Rush and especially Sean Hannity that Nancy Pelosi, Hillary, et al. will turn our proud nation into a wimpy, appeasing socialist cesspool if they took over Congress. They'd probably like to do so, of course , but our government has enough checks and balances to prevent outright self-destruction. Of course, the hubris-afflicted folks like Karl Rove who prevail in Republican circles these days think checks and balances is a quaint notion.

For what it's worth, I have every intention of voting Republican, and I hope all public-spirited conservatives do as well. I want them to win, but I'm not going to freak out if they lose. Maybe, just maybe, some Republican officials may notice that the declining motivation of thoughtful conservatives in this election means that the party needs to slap itself in the collective face. As long as campaigns remain focused on "getting out the base" via dumbed-down, crass, negative TV ads, I will have a hard time getting excited about our side's candidates.